The Bender-Gestalt was given following the Canter Background Interference Procedure (BIP) to 40 schizophrenics divided into paranoid-nonparanoid and processreactive sub-categories. Nonparanoids performed significantly poorer under BIP conditions than under standard procedure. Paranoids performed equally well under both conditions. Comparison with Canter's brain-damaged Ss indicated that process nonparanoid schizophrenics resemble brain-damaged Ss using this procedure.Canter (1 966) has presented evidence that the performance of brain-damaged subjects on the Bender-Gestalt test is significantly impaired when the test items are drawn against a distracting background of wavy lines. He has called this modification the Background Interference Procedure (BIP). The BIP is of conceptual interest because it changes the Bender-Gestalt from a simple copying task to one with strong attentional components.Silverman (1 964) and McGhie (1969) have marshalled evidence that schizophrenia, particularly if one excepts paranoid schizophrenia, is basically an attentional disorder. If so, nonparanoid schizophrenics should show the same kind of deterioration under BIP conditions as do braindamaged patients. However, Canter (1966) found that a group of psychotic patients showed significantly less deterioration in performance than a braindamaged group, under BIP conditions. Of his psychotic patients 22 of 38 were diagnosed as schizophrenic reactions, but were not further differentiated.This study explores the hypothesis that nonparanoid schizophrenics will perform more poorly on a task with attentional distraction than on one without. In this they should differ from paranoid schizophrenics but resemble the braindamaged.